05-06-2022, 06:45 PM
(05-06-2022, 09:43 AM)Markymark Wrote:(05-06-2022, 09:07 AM)Hatton Cross Wrote: Without wishing to dilute the horrific and tragic accident of the day, TV-am staying on line does lead to an interesting question about the bending of the IBA rules for that broadcast.
As we know, TV-am was 'unplugged' at 9.25 am each day, so what would have happened for the special broadcast at 10.05.?
Would the scheduled programme between 9.25-10.05 been fed up from Thames and received into Hawley Crescent as an o/s, or would TV-am, as per usual, having been detatched from the national TX chain at 9.25, meant that it was Thames that put them to air for the network as their o/s?
Almost certainly the latter, if only for contractual and licensing reasons. TV-am was not a 'broadcaster' after 09:25, the ITV regional companies took over. Leaving TV-am in circuit (and therefore invoving BT on a large scale at very short notice) would have been full of technical risks. Far better to feed TV-am into Thames or ITN as an OS.
Of course Thames would do pretty much the same thing again a couple of years later (the other side of 9:25am) when TV-am had a power failure due to the Great Storm of October 1987, and hotfooted it up to Thames to be able to get on the air at all. IIRC any output that did come from Camden Lock was piped through Thames as an outside broadcast and it was technically Thames who were on air that morning as Camden Lock didn't have any power to get going (and as it turned out they were only up for an hour or so and then no output at all at some point after 8am).